


Devil's Advovate

by ColonelScience



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types, Forgotten Realms
Genre: Bullying, Friendship, Gen, Mild Language, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-22 01:25:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12470384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColonelScience/pseuds/ColonelScience
Summary: In a tavern in Neverwinter, a boy from a local school is attempting to study a new book when several of his peers seek to disrupt his evening. Fortunately for him, not all of the tavern's patrons are willing to put up with it.





	Devil's Advovate

The Driftwood Tavern was bustling with activity in the evening. Patrons ate, drank, and laughed together, enjoying the temperate climate of the city of Neverwinter. There was one corner of the building, though, that visitors to the tavern seemed to avoid. In a booth in the far corner of the main room, a large book with an intricate and abstract pattern on the cover stood on the table, obscuring whoever sat behind it. Occasionally, a pair of short, goat-like horns protruding from a neatly combed head of black hair would poke out above the top of the book, or a small red-skinned hand would peak around its edge to turn a page. To the side of the book sat a bowl filled with soup, the owner of the book hardly having touched it.

The bell above the tavern’s entrance jingled as the door opened, muffled by the clamor of those already inside. A pair of boys, seemingly in their early to mid-teens, pushed their way in, chattering amongst themselves about various aspects of their lives. Both were humans with fair skin, the taller one with blonde hair and the shorter one with brown. The two froze when one of them pointed to the booth in the corner and whispered something to the other. They both sneered and weaved their way through the crowded tavern, stopping once they reached the booth. The taller of the two boys grabbed the bowl of soup from beside the book and emptied it on the head of the book’s owner. Letting out a gasp of shock, he loosened his grip on the book and it fell flat on the table.

A young boy, no older than twelve, sat there covered in lukewarm soup. He had an otherworldly look about him, possessing light red, almost pink skin, a pair of horns emerging from the top of his head, and solid silver eyes with no visible pupils sitting behind a pair of large, round spectacles. On the seat beside him, a long, forked tail twitched as the boy stared open mouthed at the mess that had been made of his robes.

The two older boys laughed. A few bar patrons looked over with concerned faces, but most simply ignored the situation, and none offered any help.

“What’s the matter, demon boy?” the taller boy said. “Soup not hot enough for you?”

The young tiefling regained enough composure to speak. “Please, I just want to read.” His lip quivered. He seemed to be on the edge of tears.

“Oh, the demon wants to read a book, does he?” the other boy said. “Wants to learn how to summon more of his demon friends here into the city?”

“I reckon we should put a stop to that,” the first boy said, reaching for the book on the table.

The tiefling grabbed it off the table and clutched it close to his chest, soup soaking into the leather cover. “No, please,” he said. “I only just bought this book, and it’s about abjuration magic, not conjuration.” Tears were starting to pool up in his eyes.

“I don’t know what any of those fancy magic words mean,” the shorter boy said, “but I don’t trust demons with any sort of magic. I think we best take that book, and maybe give this little demon a beating to teach it a lesson.”

“Yeah, I don’t think you’re going to be doing that.” The two boys turned around and found themselves face to face with another tiefling. This one was somewhat taller than them, but still clearly not much older than the boy they had been antagonizing. She had pale skin and long blonde hair, with large horns poking through. Her eyes were solid blue, and fixed on the two human boys in an unblinking glare.

After recovering from the initial shock of seeing the stranger emerge behind them, the taller boy scoffed. “Take a look at this, Stedd, it looks like we’ve got two demons to teach a lesson to today.”

“Alright,” the tiefling girl said. “I’m tired of this now.” Without another word, she pulled her knee up into the taller boy’s groin. He let out a loud yelp and collapsed to the ground, clutching his injured crotch and whimpering. Before Stedd could react, she turned to him and planted a fist in his face. He reached up to stop the flow of blood coming from his nose and the girl whipped her tail around, knocking his feet out from under him. As he fell to the ground, the tavern had fallen silent, and all eyes were on the group of children in the corner.

After a moment of stunned silence, the barkeep shook her head and pointed at the group. “You four! Out of my tavern now!”

The tiefling girl grunted as the boys on the ground pulled themselves to their feet, scrambling to the door and away from her as fast as they could. “Whatever,” she said under her breath. “Food here sucks anyway.” She took the younger tiefling boy’s hand, pulling him to his feet. A stunned expression rested on his face, and he followed her out the door without a word, the book under his arm. A small weasel poked its head out of the hood pooled around the back of his neck, turning its head to observe the situation before ducking back in.

“Thank you,” the boy said, avoiding eye contact with the girl.

“Don’t mention it,” the girl said. “Assholes had it coming.” She turned to walk away, but the boy’s hand caught her shoulder.

“Wait,” he said. He paused for a moment, mouth slightly open as he searched for the right words. “My name’s Morsiri. What’s yours?”

The girl turned back towards him. “I’m Zane.”

“There aren’t many other tieflings in Neverwinter,” Morsiri said. “Thanks for standing up for me.” He paused for a bit, still not looking Zane in the eye. “Does this mean we’re friends now?”

Zane paused a moment then laughed. “Hell, yeah we are,” she said.

Morsiri finally looked her in the eyes and smiled, if only a little. Soup still dripped from his robes and hair, but he didn’t seem all that bothered by it anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Dungeons and Dragons and the Forgotten Realms setting belong to Wizards of the Coast. Morsiri was created by me, and Zane belongs to a friend of mine and is used with permission.
> 
> As it currently stands, this is a one-off story, but if anyone does want to see more with these characters please let me know. Advice and any other comments are always welcome!


End file.
